Fields of Eternia - MOTU Board game by Archon Studios | European market

[melkor23]

So what's your point in relation to anything I said?

My point is that it makes totally sense to put She-Ra on the Heroic Warriors side in a Classics canon based game. Nobody outside the MotU fandom knows or cares about the different factions within the good and evil side. It is just good vs. evil in the game, no more, no less.

[Krueger]

Just to clarify, this isn't the same as this one?:

https://cmon.com/news/cmon-announces...the-board-game

[Jukka]

Just to clarify, this isn't the same as this one?:

https://cmon.com/news/cmon-announces...the-board-game

Correct.

There is a boardgame being made by CMON -> US & Asian market
And then this boardgame "Fields of Eternia" by Archon Studio -> European market.

Two different games.

[uaxuctum]

Point being, people are gonna want to team up He-Man and She-Ra against Skeletor and Hordak. The.averagr gamer wants a good v evil format and not a retelling of mythos and canon. Can both exist? Absolutely! But in an initial release, it's gonna be basic with hopeful expansions. I think it'll be He-Man v Skeletor. She-Ra and Hordak will be stretch goal expansions and so on. We'd be lucky to see early releases of any Snake Men or He-Ro or Mutants, etc.

And what would be the impediment against teaming up together two or more different heroic factions in certain circumstances? People are gonna wanna team up Skeletor and Hordak and King Hsss together, too, when an Ultimate Battleground kind of situation comes up in the game, while in other situations they'll go on their own. The Great Rebellion is primarily involved in fighting the Horde on Etheria, a business and setting that does not normally concern the Heroic Warriors fighting Skeletor on Eternia. Therefore it makes total sense for the Great Rebellion to be its own faction.

My point is that it makes totally sense to put She-Ra on the Heroic Warriors side in a Classics canon based game. Nobody outside the MotU fandom knows or cares about the different factions within the good and evil side. It is just good vs. evil in the game, no more, no less.

Why are the Horde and the Snake Men going to be in separate factions from. the Evil Warriors, then? They're all evil guys and “nobody outside the MotU fandom” is going to know or care about the different factions within evil in the game, either, according to your reasoning.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

I strongly suspect that She-Ra will be the only character from the POP toyline to be released with the game unless they do any future expansions - whereas the Horde and the Snake Men are factions originally created for the MOTU toyline. So I think the reality will be that the game will consist of 99% "MOTU characters only", with She-Ra being thrown in as a "marquee character" in order to assist in generating sales.

The game is being made to appeal to preexisting MOTU fans this is true, but in order to generate maximum sales figures the publishers will also want to be targeting the game to those who have only a casual interest in MOTU, or the "Wow, I remember that from when I was a kid! I wonder what the game is like?" section of the market. So from the perspective of those markets, it makes sense to include She-Ra as she is arguably the second- or third-best known character from the entire mythos (behind He-Man & Skeletor), even if she's not a totally natural fit from a canonical POV.

Take care...

[Durendal]

Chris here...

I strongly suspect that She-Ra will be the only character from the POP toyline to be released with the game unless they do any future expansions - whereas the Horde and the Snake Men are factions originally created for the MOTU toyline. So I think the reality will be that the game will consist of 99% "MOTU characters only", with She-Ra being thrown in as a "marquee character" in order to assist in generating sales.

The game is being made to appeal to preexisting MOTU fans this is true, but in order to generate maximum sales figures the publishers will also want to be targeting the game to those who have only a casual interest in MOTU, or the "Wow, I remember that from when I was a kid! I wonder what the game is like?" section of the market. So from the perspective of those markets, it makes sense to include She-Ra as she is arguably the second- or third-best known character from the entire mythos (behind He-Man & Skeletor), even if she's not a totally natural fit from a canonical POV.

Take care...

I agree, I'd be surprised if any POP characters beyond She-Ra were added at any point.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

I agree, I'd be surprised if any POP characters beyond She-Ra were added at any point.

Only if the game did such massive numbers that they started to need extra characters, or if they released a pack that was, say, 3 Horde and 3 heroic characters - then I could potentially see them going Great Rebellion but unfortunately most POP toyline characters are some distance down on the list of characters that would be recognised by casual or non-fans.

However, I DO think if they released a Horde pack that Shadow Weaver would be in with a good chance of featuring!

Take care...

[Laura Gill]

Every board game I have played is a basic engine to which are added expansion packs. I don't expect She-Ra in the first game. I don't want her there, and don't see any reason to cram everything in at once. I want the basic He-Man vs. Skeletor set up, with the option to add She-Ra and Hordak as an expansion.

This is something I've noticed with fans. They want everything all at once when maybe simpler is better. For example, Lords of Waterdeep is great on its own, but it has expansions that lets you play Undermountain and Skullport. Not everyone wants to play with Corruption in Skullport, however. They don't have to. It should be the same with Fields of Eternia. I don't necessarily want to play Etherian characters when Eternia already has so many great options.

That said: Fields of Eternia sounds like a pretentious men's fragrance. Now I keep picturing He-Man and Skeletor in an Obsession-type ad.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

Every board game I have played is a basic engine to which are added expansion packs. I don't expect She-Ra in the first game. I don't want her there, and don't see any reason to cram everything in at once. I want the basic He-Man vs. Skeletor set up, with the option to add She-Ra and Hordak as an expansion.

I think (I could be wrong) that She-Ra has been announced as a character in the base game. But I suspect she will be the only POP character (unless Hordak is in there and you think of the Horde as She-Ra characters).

This is something I've noticed with fans. They want everything all at once when maybe simpler is better. For example, Lords of Waterdeep is great on its own, but it has expansions that lets you play Undermountain and Skullport. Not everyone wants to play with Corruption in Skullport, however. They don't have to. It should be the same with Fields of Eternia. I don't necessarily want to play Etherian characters when Eternia already has so many great options.

Great to talk to a fellow Lords of Waterdeep fan!

Take care...

[ash]

This is something I've noticed with fans. They want everything all at once when maybe simpler is better. For example, Lords of Waterdeep is great on its own, but it has expansions that lets you play Undermountain and Skullport. Not everyone wants to play with Corruption in Skullport, however. They don't have to. It should be the same with Fields of Eternia. I don't necessarily want to play Etherian characters when Eternia already has so many great options.

I would love to see a lot of expansions for this, but I think the concern is if it doesn't come with the first release, it won't ever come. Expansions usually work when the game is able to sell a lot of copies. The fact that this game won't (can't) be distributed outside of Europe and is being done via Kickstarter means that it will probably be a low production board game potentially only with a single run. If anyone is willing to help get some copies for fans in the US, there is a thread of people asking in the marketplace.

[melkor23]

Every board game I have played is a basic engine to which are added expansion packs. I don't expect She-Ra in the first game. I don't want her there, and don't see any reason to cram everything in at once. I want the basic He-Man vs. Skeletor set up, with the option to add She-Ra and Hordak as an expansion.

This is something I've noticed with fans. They want everything all at once when maybe simpler is better. For example, Lords of Waterdeep is great on its own, but it has expansions that lets you play Undermountain and Skullport. Not everyone wants to play with Corruption in Skullport, however. They don't have to. It should be the same with Fields of Eternia. I don't necessarily want to play Etherian characters when Eternia already has so many great options.

That said: Fields of Eternia sounds like a pretentious men's fragrance. Now I keep picturing He-Man and Skeletor in an Obsession-type ad.

She-Ra is already confirmed: https://archon-studio.com/blog/maste...the-board-game

Play as your favourite characters: He-Man, Skeletor, She-Ra, Evil-Lyn, Man-At-Arms, Beast Man, Teela and many more.

[uaxuctum]

She-Ra is already confirmed: https://archon-studio.com/blog/maste...the-board-game

Which is highly unfortunate. She-Ra, with the Horde and the Rebellion, should be their own separate expansion (appropriately called, say, “Fields of Etheria”), with She-Ra being precisely one of main selling points for that expansion (which could, and probably should, even function as a separately playable full game of its own, apart from as an add-on/expansion).

It makes zero sense to me to have She-Ra as part of the Heroic Warriors on Eternia. Just like He-Man is the leader of his own faction of Eternia, She-Ra is the leader of her own faction on Etheria (together with Glimmer, Bow, and Angella as her Great Rebellion co-leaders in a sense; much like the Sorceress, Randor, Teela, and Man-at-Arms are co-leaders of the Heroic Warriors in certain senses).

In my view, there should be (eventually) four main games/expansions, each separately playable on its own (as well as freely combinable with any of the others). Each would correspond to one of the main corners/eras of the Motuverse, and each would have its own pair of opposing factions (each with their own members and leaders):


(1) “Fields of Eternia”

Heroic Warriors (He-Man, Sorceress, Teela, MAA, Randor...)
vs
Evil Warriors (Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Trap-Jaw...)


(2) “Fields of Etheria”

Great Rebellion (She-Ra, Glimmer, Bow, Angella, Razz...)
vs
Evil Horde (Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Catra, Mantenna, Scorpia...)


(3) “Fields of Preternia”

Grayskull Warriors (King Grayskull, Veena, He-Ro, Eldor...)
vs
Snake Men (King Hsss, Rattlor, Kobra-Kahn, Tung Lashor...)


(4) “Fields of the Tri-Solar System”

Galactic Guardians (Flipshot, Hydron, Sebrian, Mara... with He-Man as “guest co-leader”)
vs
Space Mutants (Flogg, Crita, Slushhead, Hoove... with Skeletor as “guest co-leader”)


Then, mini-expansions (not playable on their own) would add subfactions, independents, and other additional characters and elements. Such as: Mer-Man with his minion fishmen and an assortment of his marine beasts; Shokoti with Lord Masque, her pyramid, darklings and monster; Hunga and her harpies (with King Micah as their prisoner to be freed in a side mission for the Rebellion); General Tataran and his goblin army as a mercenary add-on to Skeletorʼs forces; the Gleanons and the Galactimytes (with Queen Crita and Queen Mara as add-on variants with special abilities and duties); He-Men though the ages (Vikor, Oo-Lar, Wun-Dar, Vykron, etc.) and other chronological in-betweeners like King Tamusk, King Miro, Kuduk Ungol, the Horde Invaders...; etc.

And, then, there are several additional corners of the Motuverse that have not yet been fully explored and played out in existing media (so far remaining as merely embrionary eras), that would require the game developers to evolve them themselves into full-fledged stories:

(5) “Fields of Posternia”, pitching Dareʼs Daring Warriors against Skeleteenʼs Evil Gang

(6) “Fields of Pretheria”, pitching the First Ones against Horde Prime's Brotherhood (and against the Rebel Squadron Grayskull acting as a fifth column within the First Ones)

(7) “Fields of Trolla”, pitching the Overlords of Trolla against the Unnamed One

[melkor23]

These are all nice ideas, but again: nobody outside the MotU fandom knows about the differences between Eternia, Etheria, Preternia and the Tri-Solar System. Of course there will be some hardcore fans who will buy a distinct Fields of Preternia but this it not enough. Classics were abandoned by Mattel for a reason - not enough sales, because nobody outside the hardcore fandom knew the characters any more. We will all see in the Kickstarter how popular Eternia is.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

Received my Skeletor on Panthor miniature today - yay!

Unfortunately, the box it was in was badly dented, and the head of Skeletor's havoc staff has snapped off - thanks for that FedEx!

I've submitted a damaged item notification to Archon Studios via their webform on their website, I'm hoping that they will be able to sort this for me. It's a very clean break and so some plastic glue would fix it, but in my experience from Warhammer models there will always be a structural weakness there. I'm very disappointed.

Take care...

[melkor23]

I made an unboxing for PlanetEternia TV:

[Jukka]

ARCHON STUDIO has a CHARACTER SURVEY up on their site!


Go and vote for your Favorite Character(s) as Miniature for the Boardgame!


Click here participate on MOTU Survey for ”Fields of Eternia”

[Sir Reilly]

Seems predictable that the better-known secondary characters will get most votes. But I keep crossing fingers to see the occasional surprise, like Horde Prime, He-Ro or Dragstor!

[halopriest]

I wonder how long it will take to gather all data before the campaign is ready to launch.
Is the plan still on schedule "...coming to Kickstarter towards the end of 2020"?

[Yaaqob]

Hello everyone!
I'm here with two more or less important pieces of news!
1. Shadow Weaver will be available in the Horde faction.
2. We decided to postpone the Kickstarter campaign for Q1 2021.

[halopriest]

Hello everyone!
I'm here with two more or less important pieces of news!
1. Shadow Weaver will be available in the Horde faction.
2. We decided to postpone the Kickstarter campaign for Q1 2021.

Thanks for letting us know!

Although that news sandwich is incomplete
1. good news (check)
2. bad news (check)
3. good news (?)



I know, better wait and get a good game than the other way around.

[baileyrecords]

Hello everyone!
I'm here with two more or less important pieces of news!
1. Shadow Weaver will be available in the Horde faction.
2. We decided to postpone the Kickstarter campaign for Q1 2021.

Glad you're here. I'm a long-time supporter of Archon Studios Kickstarters and really look forward to this one (even if I have to use a mule to get it across the pond).

[Tallstar]

She-Ra/Swiftwind

[Laura Gill]

She-Ra/Swiftwind

OMG. I would LOVE to paint that. The more detailed, the better I like it.

[baileyrecords]

She-Ra/Swiftwind

Due to the holidays and for other reasons, my friend in the UK is unable to secure and ship me She-Ra and Swifty. What a bummer these aren't available in the US. I understand why, but still sad. The model looks amazing!!!

[Jim_Abell]

Received my He-Man and Skeletor figures from my friend in England and they are beautiful little pieces of art. I would like to suggest to the Archon guys that are posting here, please, please, pack future figures better. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned getting their Skeletor with the head of the Havoc Staff broken off and mine was, too. Wrapping that figure in bubble wrap with the staff positioned as it is will pretty much guarantee a broken staff. I'm pretty sure that I can fix it but no one should have to do that. I do give props to the Archon staff for the first He-Man figure my friend was sent. Not sure how it was packed but it arrived crushed and they did replace it with him with no problems. I'm looking forward to She-Ra and to seeing what figures are next. I wish I had the skill to paint these but they're still incredible tiny pieces of art as they are.